The BA2597 from Verona, Italy took off shortly after 11am but a "general emergency" was reported on board just before 12pm, according to flight tracker service Flight Alerts.

The flight information service tweeted: "BA2597 Verona (VRN) - London (LGW) declared a general emergency."

The flight was scheduled to leave from Italy at 11.20am but took off early at 11.08am.

It was due to land at Gatwick Airport at 12.25pm.

The nature of the "general emergency" is not yet clear.

We have contacted British Airways for a comment.

Read back over our live blog below for all the latest updates from the incident.

If you have any more information on this incident the please tweet us @myldn.

13:03

British Airways confirm 'priority landing' of Gatwick bound flight

British Airways has confirmed the “emergency” incident on board the was due to a “minor technical issue with the aircraft” and that all passengers have disembarked safely.

A BA spokesman told MyLondon: “The pilot requested a priority landing due to a minor technical issue with the aircraft. So he took the plane back around and came back down before landing. Everyone has disembarked from the flight safely.”

He added that fire engines were there as standard procedure and that there was no fire on board the plane.

12:49

Image shows four fire engines surrounded plane on runway

An image posted on twitter shows several fire engines around the grounded plane.

12:43

Plane 'surrounded by fire engines'

According to Twitter user @SamCarvalho the plane has now landed at Gatwick and been “surrounded by fire engines.”